


don’t you hear me howling?

by sunshineforthesoul



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Friends to Lovers, M/M, POV Derek "Nursey" Nurse, but nursey is an oblivious one, they are both idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 08:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21317413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshineforthesoul/pseuds/sunshineforthesoul
Summary: The more Nursey thinks about Dex, (which is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence) he realizes that Dex is not as mysterious and unreadable as he seems. Dex actually drops a lot of hints about himself, but they’re subtle and you’d miss them if you blinked.Nursey wonders if there are other signs he’s been missing.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 12
Kudos: 193





	don’t you hear me howling?

**Author's Note:**

> title from “it will come back” by hozier
> 
> this is a follow up to [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19180465) fic 
> 
> check, please! and its characters belong to ngozi

Dex makes a lot more sense to Nursey now that they know he’s a werewolf. 

He doesn’t smile very much, or if he does, he tends to keep his mouth closed. If you look closely, you can see that there’s something... off about his canines. They’re too long, too sharp, just enough that you might take a second glance.

His eyes —which Nursey has always thought were unusually vibrant, almost luminescent — are another subtle sign that there’s something different about him. 

He’s also abnormally warm all the time. The first time winter rolled around and Dex didn’t have much other than his coat and occasionally a hat, Nursey asked him about it. Dex had grumbled something about his siblings needing it more than he did. 

It wasn’t until the heater broke during their sophomore year and they were sharing a blanket on the couch that Nursey noticed it.

“Dude, how are you so warm? It’s freezing in here,” Nursey said.

“Stop talking. I’m trying to pay attention,” Dex replied, eyes on the TV. “What the—? Nurse what the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m cold and you’re not so just relax.”

“You’re _cuddling_ me right now.” Dex’s face was almost scarlet. 

“It’s only weird if you make it weird.”

“But—”

“Shh. You’re the one who got mad that I was talking.”

Dex’s brow furrowed, but he shook his head and decided to let it go.

(Also on the list: He gets over injuries rather quickly, and he never gets sick.)

In hindsight, it’s so obvious, Nursey wonders why he didn’t see it sooner. Though, finding out your friend (who you used to not get along with) is a _werewolf_ is weird, to say the least. 

Nursey’s more disappointed in himself that he never picked up on the fact that Dex is gay, because there were signs there too. He feels bad about all the times he asked Dex about girls, or tried to set him up at kegsters and Dex laughed awkwardly and brushed it off or changed the topic immediately.

The more Nursey thinks about Dex, (which is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence) he realizes that Dex is not as mysterious and unreadable as he seems. Dex actually drops a lot of hints about himself, but they’re subtle and you’d miss them if you blinked.

Nursey wonders if there are other signs he’s been missing.

  


__

* * *

  


Nursey can’t find Dex anywhere. For a second, he worries it might be a full moon, which would be the ultimate kegster ender. He checks outside, just in case, but the moon is only a sliver in the sky.

One of Ford’s theater friends spots him wandering around the Haus.

“What’s the matter?” the guy — Andrew — says.

“It’s nothing,” Nursey says waving him off. 

“Are you sure? You look upset.”

“Yeah I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Nursey takes a longer look at him. “You were just in _Beauty and the Beast_, weren't you?”

Andrew nods. “I was, in fact, the Beast.”

“Oh my God, you were amazing!” Nursey says, “I couldn’t believe how good your costume was. I’ve never seen a Beast that realistic.”

“Thanks.” Andrew flashes his teeth at Nursey. “But the costume department had some help.”

Nursey’s eyes widen. “You’re… you’re a werewolf,” he gasps. 

“You’d be surprised how many of us are.” Andrew’s grin stretches. “As soon as I got here, I could tell there was another one in here. I’ve been trying to track you down all night.”

“It’s… I’m not—” Nursey stiffens as Andrew brings his face close to his neck. 

“Oh I know,” Andrew says. “I can tell by your scent. But I knew if I found you, I’d figured out who it was.”

“What?” Nursey asks, trying to steady his pounding heart. “Why?”

“I can smell him on you.” He’s close enough that his lips brush Nursey’s neck. A shiver runs down Nursey’s spine. “You’ve been marked.” 

“What? Marked?” Nursey furrows his brow. “What do you mean I’ve been marked?”

Andrew pulls back and looks at him with an amused curiosity. There’s a vaguely hungry look in his eyes that Nursey doesn’t like, and he resists the urge to squirm.

“Excuse me,” someone says, before Andrew can answer.

They both turn to see Dex standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He raises his eyebrows at them, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

“Dex?” Nursey says, feeling his chest loosen. “Where’ve you been?”

“Trying to find you. Am I interrupting something?”

“No.” Nursey slides down the wall, closer to Dex. “We were just talking.” 

The suspicion doesn’t leave Dex’s face, and he keeps his eyes on Andrew. “Oh, were you?”

“Hi,” Andrew says. “I’m Andrew. Ford invited me, and there was a delightful smell that I just couldn’t help but be curious about.”

“There are cupcakes in the kitchen.” Dex’s voice drips with venom, and his eyes are like flint. “Well thanks for keeping Nursey in one place for me. Makes him easier to track down.” 

Andrew grins again, showing off his fangs. “Anytime.” He winks and saunters away. 

“Nurse what the fuck?” Dex says as soon as Andrew’s gone.

“What?”

“What’re you doing, hanging out with—” 

“I didn’t know when I first saw him!”

“Do you have any idea what could’ve happened to you?” Dex’s face twists into a frown. “Do you know what I would’ve done if something happened to you?” 

“I was fine! We’re in the Haus and there’s people everywhere.” 

“I just…” Dex shakes his head. “Never mind. I was just trying to make sure you weren’t up on the roof again or something.” He turns and starts to walk away.

“Hey!” Nursey calls out. “Dex wait!”

Dex turns his head just enough that he can look at Nursey. “What?” 

“Is everything cool? Like, you’re not upset with me, are you?”

“Yeah. I’m never really that mad at you.” He stops. “Are you ok?” 

“I… Yeah.” 

Dex’s shoulders slouch a little. “Come on. I wasn’t kidding when I said there were cupcakes in the kitchen.”

Nursey gives up and follows him deeper into the Haus.

  


__

* * *

  


“Dex, I want to ask you something.” Nursey stands in their doorway, leaning on the door frame. 

Dex doesn’t look up from his computer. “Shoot.”

“I was in the library and I started reading through some books about, like, myths about werewolves.”

“Yeah?”

“Um, do you remember the night we had a kegster and you found me talking to one of Ford’s theater friends?”

Dex nods.

“Well… he, uh, he told me I’d been marked?” Dex freezes. Nursey looks down and continues on. “And today in the library, I read that werewolves communicate a lot through scent, and that marking is like a… threat? Like a warning to other werewolves to stay away?”

Dex’s face has gone pure red, and he looks like his head is about to explode or he’s about to cry or both. 

Nursey exhales, puffing out his cheeks. “God, this is so weird.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Um, I don’t really know how to ask this, but, uh… did you” — he coughs — “did you mark me?”

Dex stares at Nursey with an intensity like he wants to bore holes in Nursey’s skull — which maybe he does. He stays silent for so long, Nursey starts to accept that he’s not going to answer at all, when he says, very quietly, “Yes.”

Nursey feels heat rush to his cheeks and he’s grateful he’s leaning against the door frame because if he wasn’t, he probably would’ve fallen over. 

“Why?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Dex says through gritted teeth. 

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to do this with you right now.”

“Then when would you? Because based on your reaction, it seems like it’s a pretty big deal.” 

“It’s none of your business—”

“It fucking is my business!” Nursey gasps, as some of the pieces start to connect. “Is this why you’ve started hugging me before I leave the Haus? Some of my friends have been acting really weirdly lately and it’s because of you isn’t it? They can smell your… your whatever the fuck it is and they don’t want you to come tear their faces off!”

Dex frowns. “Why are you getting mad at me?”

“Because you still haven’t answered my question.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I don’t care.”

“It would ruin everything!”

“Tell me why, Dex,” he demands. 

Dex’s back tenses, and Nursey sees fur starting to appear on his body. “I can’t.”

“Why not? I thought we were friends!”

“We are! That’s why I can’t…” He bends over, his fingernails elongating and sharpening into claws.

“I don’t understand,” Nursey says. 

Dex looks up, the vicious look in his eyes unlike anything Nursey has ever seen. 

For the first time, Nursey feels afraid of him. He steps back into the hallway. “Dex, what—”

“I’m in love with you, you fucking idiot!” Dex’s eyes squeeze shut and his whole body shudders as he transforms fully into a wolf. He bolts out of the room and down the stairs.

“Dex! Wait!”

Nursey chases after him out into the yard. The rest of the hockey team follows behind, having heard the commotion and the sound of nails scraping against the floorboards. 

Dex stands at the edge of their yard, close to the forest. He turns around and crouches into an offensive position. 

“Dex—”

“Guys… I have a bad feeling about this,” Tango says. 

Dex snarls at Nursey. 

“Dex, come back,” Nursey pleads.

Dex barks loudly and the team winces. 

“Nursey, you gotta let him go,” Ransom says. 

“No!” Nursey says stubbornly. He takes a step towards Dex. “Dex please.”

Dex growls and snaps at him. 

Ransom puts his hand on Nursey’s shoulder. “For your own safety, go back inside the Haus.”

Dex bares his fangs, then darts into the trees and is swallowed by the forest.

Nursey doesn’t know he’s moved until he feels at least three pairs of arms holding him back. He struggles against them, but their grip gets tighter and tighter.

“Derek stop!” Lardo yells. 

For some reason, out of all the people trying to stop him, she’s the one who gets through to him. 

She stands in front of him, arms crossed. “What the fuck happened?”

“We were arguing,” Nursey says, eyes fixed on the trees. “He started getting really emotional, but he wouldn’t answer me so I kept pushing him and he admitted that he liked me and then he like, lost it.”

Lardo rubs her temples. “Nurse, you forced an emotional transformation. They're really dangerous, because the wolf part of him takes over.” She sighs. “Transformations triggered by intense emotional or physical distress are like defense mechanisms.” 

Nursey blinks at her. “How do you know all this?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m an art student. The arts are _crawling_ with wolves. The only thing we can do now is wait for him to change back and return to the Haus. You’re lucky he didn’t hurt you.” 

The team goes back inside, but Nursey hangs out on the back porch. He watches as the sun sinks below the horizon and the forest’s shadows grow larger than the trees, until the pitch black makes it so he can’t tell where the sky ends and the ground starts. 

“Come inside,” Lardo says gently, causing Nursey to jump. “It’s getting late.”

“But Dex…”

“Give him time. He’ll come back.” 

  


__

* * *

  


Dex isn’t there in the morning. 

Nursey wakes up at the crack of dawn to pace around the kitchen, constantly glancing outside.

“Hey Nursey,” Tango says.

Nursey whips his head around. “Hi, Tango.”

“What’re you doing?”

Nursey gestures towards the backyard. “Waiting for Dex to come back?”

“Why don’t you just go bring him back yourself?”

Nursey stops in his tracks. “What do you mean?”

“If someone who truly loves and trusts the werewolf calls it by its name, it’ll change back into a human,” Tango says. 

“How do you know that?”

“Oh, you know.” Tango shrugs. “I read.”

“Okay…” Nursey waits until it becomes clear that that’s all the explanation he’s going to get. “And what do you want me to do with that information?”

“Go find Dex and call him by his name.”

“Excuse me?” Nursey scoffs.

“You love him, don’t you?” 

“Well I wouldn’t… I mean we’re like—”

“In love? Why do you think no one was surprised when you said Dex told you he liked you?” 

Nursey has nothing to say to that. Now that he thinks of it, he hasn’t really had an eye for anyone since… well, it’s been a while. He’d spent so much time with Dex, they’d reached a place where it felt natural to be together. He never really thought about being with anyone else anymore because he’d rather be with Dex. 

“If you’re wondering whether you love him or not, you should go find him.”

“Have you always been this insightful?” Nursey turns around but Tango’s gone.

He walks through the living room and back into the kitchen but no one’s there. 

_Oh God, I hope I didn’t just hallucinate having a conversation with one of my teammates to help me solve a problem with a different teammate. _

He paces around the kitchen for a few more minutes, debating whether he should take Tango’s advice. It’s driving him crazy to be in the Haus, not knowing where Dex is or if he’s okay. 

He grabs his coat and slips out the back door. Broken branches and claw marks scratched into the dirt form a path for Nursey to follow in Dex’s footsteps. As he walks, he tries to reason out his feelings for Dex.

He trusts Dex. Dex is his d-man, and they look out for each other. 

What would Nursey do if he were in Dex’s shoes? If Dex was around people that could so easily hurt him, without having the slightest clue? He’d be frustrated too, but it wouldn’t just be that. 

Just like it’s not anger that Dex always directs towards Nursey, that’s in the tension between his shoulder blades. Dex is scared, and his fear presents itself as anger because it’s safer than people knowing how terrified he is. 

Dex cares about him and he missed the signs and it’s that thought that has him running through the trees with the same desperate panic that Dex must’ve felt last night and oh God where is he—

Nursey hears howling and he pushes through into a small clearing and there he is. 

Dex is sitting up on a rock, facing away from Nursey, singing a sorrowful tune to the sky.

He picks up on Nursey’s scent and immediately whirls around, already on the defensive. 

“Dex wait.” Nursey holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m here to bring you back to the Haus. But,” he adds, sticking his pointer fingers up, “I have something to say to you first, so please don’t eat me.” 

Dex stops growling, though the guarded look in his eyes doesn’t go away. 

“I’m sorry that I pushed you last night. I knew you were getting mad but I was mad too and I couldn’t think about anything except how badly I wanted an answer from you.” Dex slowly hops down from the rocks and onto the forest floor. “I needed an answer because every time we hung out, it felt like… like we should just be together. When you started hugging me before I left the Haus, I thought it was kind of weird, but I never said anything because I liked it and I was afraid you’d stop. And I’ve tried to ignore the feelings building up but last night I kept pushing because I just… I had to know if you felt the same way.”

Dex is standing in front of him now. 

“William Poindexter, I love you.” 

Before the sentence is even finished, Dex’s body begins to glow. Nursey’s seen his transformations before, but they never cease to be one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen. 

Even more so is the sight of Dex, blushing furiously, his mouth hanging open. 

Nursey reaches out at the same time Dex moves forward. Nursey forgets, briefly, where they are, why they’re here. He forgets everything except the feel of Dex’s mouth on his, until Dex pulls away and wipes his mouth. 

“Jesus, Nurse…” he says, breathing heavily. “Did you remember to bring clothes?”

“Oh shit. Uhhh… Oops?” 

Dex puts his face in his hands. “Oh God. The moment I’d both hoped for and dreaded and I’m naked in the middle of the woods.” 

“What, you didn’t envision us ending up naked anyways?”

Dex smacks Nursey’s arm and starts walking away. “Shut up.”

“You did, didn’t you?” Nursey half-jogs to catch up with him. 

“I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Hey, I’m the one with clothes on here, so really you’re the one who jumped the gun.” When Dex doesn’t respond, Nursey keeps talking. “Besides it’s not the first time I’ve seen you naked and it _definitely_ won’t be the last—”

“Alright, alright, enough,” Dex interrupts, but the tone of his voice is more amused than genuinely irritated. 

“Hey Dex,” Nursey says after a beat of silence.

“What?”

“This year for Halloween, can we go as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf?”

Dex tilts his head back and lets out a long sigh. “Fine.”

“Because you love me?” 

“No. Because I can scare everyone else away.”

“But you do love me?”

Dex turns his head so Nursey can see the hint of a smile on his lips. “I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> when i wrote the first fic, i wasn’t planning on writing a follow up, so the timeline is probably messed up but whatever it’s an au lmao
> 
> also now that i’ve written this, i kinda want to write more werewolf fics that _don’t_ take place in this specific universe, but we’ll see if i ever get around to it. also, if you like this au and want to read more about the mischief the smh team gets up to in this universe, [here](https://omgdexnursey.tumblr.com/post/185594754041/randomnoteforfuturereference-the-adventures-of) is a fun post for you!
> 
> if you enjoyed this, leave me a comment and/or kudos! i love reading nice comments :) 
> 
> come say hi to me on tumblr [@omgdexnursey](https://omgdexnursey.tumblr.com/)


End file.
